The Tennessean (Nashville newspaper) – December 20, 2002 – “West Virginia Uses Medicaid Loophole”, p. 13B

This article highlights the ongoing struggle West Virginia is having with the mandate in the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 (OBRA 93) for states to recover Medicaid payouts from the estate of the second spouse. West Virginia petitioned the Federal government to be able to exempt estates worth less than $50,000. The petition was rejected and an appeal is pending.

Meanwhile, the state Department of Health and Human Services has found an out. The law says the state is supposed to conduct estate recovery on all size estates. Paul Nusbaum, The Secretary of the DHHS says “supposed to” is the operative phrase. He maintains he doesn’t have the staff to handle the job and that DHHS will get to the cases whenever it can. He feels that the mandate is met as long as the DHHS expresses that intention. He says the average West Virginia estate is worth only $14,000 and that it isn’t cost effective to spend an inordinate amount of time and resources on small recoveries. www.tennessean.com